THE INTERPRETATION OF OWLS: Selected Poems, 1977-2022.

First edition, first printing. Signed by John Greening. Original burgundy cloth lettered and ruled in gilt to the spine. In the dustwrapper, the front panel reproducing an untitled 1901 painting by the poet's grandfather, Clarence Melville Greening which inspired the poem after which the volume is named. The painting is also reproduced as a frontispiece. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and gilt sharp, the contents clean throughout. In the fine unclipped, unpriced dustwrapper.

Signed by John Greening in black ink to the title page. 'The Interpretation of Owls', edited by Professor Kevin Gardner of Baylor University in consultation with the poet, presents a substantial selection of Greening's work, the contents arranged in sections with thematic headings with an appendix giving the chronological and publication details of each poem. There is also a transcript of a conversation between editor and poet. "To enter the expansive lines and many-angled sequences of John Greening's poetry is to be engaged in the best of conversations, with a voice whose easy depth of knowledge and breadth of reference is always rooted in attention to immediate experience—a voice that also, generously, listens. Its invitation to the reader is to inhabit, truly, each of its particular places, whatever the country, culture, or historical moment—and so, by extension, the world. Nowhere has the sheer range of Greening's work been better displayed than in this rich selection." (Philip Gross, from the jacket)